Andrew Harpham

Andrew is a Director at Frontier Economics and a member of the energy and renewables practice. He has 25 years of experience applying economics to policy design and implementation, economic regulation, competition assessments and forecasting of market outcomes, including prices and demand. He primarily supports energy clients and leads Frontier Economics' advice in the gas industry, including natural gas, hydrogen and renewable gases. Andrew’s work increasingly involves the analysis of electricity, gas and hydrogen market outcomes using the Frontier Economics energy model energy42.

Prior to joining Frontier Economics, he worked as an economist in the competition group of law firm Freehills. He worked closely with their lawyers, advising on the economics of competition assessments. Since joining Frontier Economics, he has continued to provide advice to lawyers and their clients on legal and competition issues, and on regulatory issues, particularly where these interface with the energy sector. This includes the competitive effects of mergers and acquisitions, to develop, interpret and apply long-term contracts in energy markets, and in support of a number of commercial disputes and judicial reviews.

Policy advice

Andrew uses economic tools and data to provide advice on the implications of new policies.

Examples include:

• Advising the Victorian government on the design and the implications of a domestic gas reservation scheme.
• Advising the gas industry on the role for gas-powered generation in the transition to net zero.
• Assisting the Australian government develop and trial an approach for developing regional energy demand forecasts using novel sources of data.

Economic regulation

He has also been involved in most of the key regulatory processes in energy markets across Australia.

Examples include:

• Advice to most of the economic regulators in Australia on retail electricity and gas prices, including calculating the wholesale and renewable components of the Victorian Default Offer each year for the ESC.
• Advice on regulated feed-in tariffs for customers with rooftop PV, including establishing the methodology adopted by IPART in New South Wales and the ESC in Victoria.
• Forecasts of demand for regulated services, including developing gas demand forecasts for Jemena and reviewing gas demand forecasts for the Australian Energy Regulator.
• Advice on capital expenditure and depreciation, including developing businesses cases for investments in electricity and gas assets and assessing the case for accelerated depreciation of gas assets.
• Regulatory due diligence for electricity and gas assets, including NSW electricity networks, gas transmission pipelines and gas distribution networks.

Energy market advice

Andrew has provided energy market advice for over 20 years, often informed by detailed energy market modelling or other analysis.

Examples include:

• Advising APA on the price impacts of importing LNG 
• Providing market due diligence advice, including forecasts of energy demand and prices.
• Developing forecasts of hydrogen demand for Australia’s National Hydrogen Infrastructure Assessment.
• Modelling the customer impacts of installing solar PV, installing batteries, purchasing EV and electrifying their gas use in order to understand the impact of customer behaviour on various energy assets.